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Saturday, December 31, 2016

Top 10 birds of 2016

2016 was a big year for me. I forayed to the Neotropics for the first time, staged two cross-continental road trips, and entered graduate school. We shall see what 2017 holds--hopefully, many birds (and possibly a new blog--but more on that later). For now, here are my favorite ten birds of the year.

10. Hooded Warbler –8/9/2016

Just a Hooded Warbler, you say? Well—I do love Hooded Warblers. This one was particularly special—I saw it
down the street from my house in my first week or so of living there. I heard
the metallic chink and tracked down a
handsome male. It inspired me to regularly bird my yard and neighborhood. http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist/S31042810

9. American Tree Sparrow—11/23/2016

Photo by Trish Gussler

Finding a rare bird is the ultimate dream for birders.
Serious avian addicts crave vagrants like narcotics, and a self-found waif is
especially desirable. I grew up seeing American Tree Sparrows on a regular
basis in Michigan, but this one that I found at Bolsa Chica with my friend Maxx
represents only the third record for Orange County. http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist/S32682289

8. Pinyon
Jay—5/11/2016

“Have you ever seen a Pinyon Jay around here?” Joel asked as
we coursed down the highway that leads to the Such lair in the foothills above
Boulder. “Don’t think so,” I said. Moments later, a blue bird flew across the
road—followed by a battalion scores strong of Pinyon Jays. Joel claims that it
was a coincidence. http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist/S29577952

7. Williamson’s Sapsucker—5/7/2016

My long-lost friend Andrew guided me around Montana for a
couple days. We launched a campaign to the Bridger Mountains in search of this,
the smartest of the sapsuckers. We eventually found a male and watched it until
our attention was stolen by a pair of goshawks. I don’t see either of these
species frequently enough. http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist/S29478376

A vagrant common enough in North America to be illustrated
in field guides but rare enough to never actually be seen. A wayfaring juvenile
was kind enough to coincide its visit to the Los Angeles River with my
pilgrimage home to California for Thanksgiving. I went to see it with my dad,
who shared and facilitated many of my formative birding experiences and with
whom I don’t bird with often enough anymore! We saw the bird despite a
ferocious downpour that forced us to retreat to the shelter of a bridge. http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist/S32646838

4. Gray-throated Chat—1/15/2016

A pretty bird of the tropical dry forests of Mexico, Belize,
and Guatamala, and one that I very much wanted to see on my Mexico trip for
reasons I can’t explain. While birding the nonpareil Calakmul ruins, my friend
Joel encountered a pair attending an ant swarm. http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist/S27003082

I spent many hours this winter observing Hispaniolan
Woodpeckers and suffered greatly for it—lichen particulates lodged in the
eyeball, feet planted in hidden piles of cow excrement, arcs of bat guano
raining down upon my head, sore muscles from hunching in a burlap blind. http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist/S27099270

1. Keel-billed Toucan—1/11/2016

It was my first full day of birding in the Neotropics. The
end of the day was approaching; my friend Joel and I had had a long day of
being traumatized by Mexican driving and being overwhelmed by a dizzying array
of new tanagers, orioles, and flycatchers. We were standing beside a small pond
when we heard it coming. Whoosh whoosh
whoosh—the wingbeats of a large bird. A pair appeared overhead—my first
toucans! http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist/S27005037